So RM and Sotheby’s Ferrari extravaganza is behind us…let’s have a Day of Rolls-Royce.

At Gooding & Co.’s sale on August 19th at Pebble Beach, they’re going to offer the Silver Ghost collection of Richard J. Solove. This is far from being just another rich guy cashing in on the collector car market; just the opposite: Dick Solove won’t be making a cent.

In the largest single automotive donation in history, Solove is contributing all proceeds from the collection’s sale, estimated at $8 to $10 million, to the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dick Solove has assembled the only known collection of Rolls-Royce’s first series 40/50hp Silver Ghost, with models from every year of the series’ 1907 to 1915 production run.

Here are some highlights from the collection, which document the evolution of RR as a carmaker, along with other related cars from the Gooding sale and the collection.

1907 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Rippon Limousine

The earliest car in the Richard Solove collection of Rolls- Royce automobiles is also the earliest 40/50hp Rolls-Royce in existence, chassis 60547. Originally built for one of Rolls-Royce’s founding directors, Mr. Arthur Briggs, it is fitted with a Rippon Bros. Open Drive Limousine body, as was Mr. Briggs’ original car. The 40/50hp Rolls-Royces are known as “Silver Ghosts” after the car in which Claude Johnson completed the 1907 Royal Automobile Club Reliability Trials and established the model’s – and Rolls-Royce’s – reputation for quality and durability. The original Silver Ghost was chassis 60551 and is now owned by Rolls-Royce; the Solove Collection’s 40/50hp is earlier and is one of the most important automobiles ever built.

1908 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Roi-des-Belges Tourer

One of only four known surviving 1908 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghosts, the Solove Collection’s example is bodied by French coachbuilder Labourdette with open coachwork incorporating three rows of fixed seating, plus jump seats.

1909 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Roi-des-Belges Tourer by Barker

The Solove Collection’s 1909 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost is bodied with open “Roi des Belges” coachwork similar to that built in period by Barker. It is elaborately equipped with boa constrictor horn, cowl lights, Bleriot headlights, Elliot speedometer, Lucas King of the Road taillights all with silver-plated finish that makes a brilliant, shining, elaborate statement of touring in the finest Edwardian style.

1910 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Balloon Roadster by H.J. Mulliner

Charles Stewart Rolls was an Edwardian adventurer who lent his support, and his name, to the automobiles built by Frederick Henry Royce. Like many aristocrats of the period, Rolls loved the automobile, but he also was an enthusiastic balloonist and aeronaut. One of his famous Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts was bodied specifically to follow his balloon through the countryside and recover it, and its occupants, in style and comfort, when they returned to earth. Rolls later became the first aeronaut to make a nonstop round trip across the English Channel in an airplane, and died prematurely in an airplane crash.

1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Victoria

Built for the Maharajah of Mysore in southern India, the Solove Collection’s 1911 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost is emblematic of the lifestyle of India’s hereditary rulers. Open bodied (with a cape top to protect the Maharajah and his consort from the brutal Mysore sunshine), behind are two platforms where his royal guards rode at attention, with one hand for themselves and the other clutching a firearm. An umbrella overhead offered the bodyguards at least the semblance of protection from the tropical sun. It is one of the Rolls-Royce automobiles featured in Twenty Silver Ghosts, with paintings by Melbourne Brindle.

1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Limousine “The Corgi” by Barker

Rolls-Royce and the owners of its automobiles frequently conferred familiar names on their automobiles. The Solove family has christened their 1912 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost limousine “Corgi,” not for Queen Elizabeth’s beloved pets but because one of the most famous, successful and best known large-scale models by English diecast model builder Corgi is based on it. It was originally built for an owner who wanted the luxury and trimmings of a limousine, but insisted upon driving it himself. It is thus as lavishly detailed and equipped in the front driver’s compartment as in the rear. The rear compartment footrest contains a complete and original tea service for four with all utensils and an alcohol stove. It is one of the most charming, intricate and luxurious Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghosts ever built, and a unique, individual example instantly recognized by every fan of the marque. Quite simply “The Corgi” is widely regarded as one of the finest formal Silver Ghosts in the world.

The Solove family calls the collection’s 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Barker Tourer “Patiala,” after the Indian state for whose Maharajah it was built. Maharajah Bhupinder Singh ruled Patiala from 1900 to 1938; his extravagance set a standard even for the rulers of India, including a story of motorcades of up to 20 Rolls-Royce automobiles which conveyed him and his entourage in London. Another Rolls-Royce story recounts that when affronted by the factory’s inattention in the early Thirties, he condemned his entire fleet of Rolls-Royce automobiles to haul garbage in Patiala City. The Solove Collection’s 1913 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost Barker Tourer was discovered in India’s Punjab region near Patiala, and driven overland to Karachi, Pakistan, where it was shipped to England for restoration by renowned Rolls-Royce expert Jonathan Harley.

1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Landaulette by Barker

Constructed as a Landaulette, the Solove Collection’s 1914 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost over the years lost the functionality of its retractable, leather-covered rear roof section. Richard Solove corrected that when it came into his collection, restoring the coachwork to its original function, while making sure its elaborate fittings, accouterments and accessories were fastidiously restored and presented. A wonderful statement of opulence and luxury, continuing the style and elegance of an earlier era of horse-drawn carriages, it is a conveyance worthy of any gentleman and his lady.

1915 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Hamshaw Limousine

The final Rolls-Royce in the Solove Collection’s unique nine-year chronology of the marque, the 1915 Rolls Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost Open Drive Limousine by Hamshaws of Leicester, also has perhaps the most significant story of all the collection’s storied cars. In 1915, the Rolls-Royce works were building aero engines for World War I; automobile production was limited to staff and armored cars for the Army. Into this near-desperate situation strode King George V, who asked Rolls-Royce to build one automobile for a very important civilian client. He was Pierre duPont in the United States, whose factories were working flat out to make armaments for the war in Europe. Lavishly trimmed with touches like elephant ivory interior handles, CAV headlights and a “Triple Elliott” speedometer/clock/odometer, the capstone of the Solove Collection’s unequaled array of Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost automobiles attests to Rolls-Royce’s importance to the crown and to the power of the marque.

1986 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur Limousine Long Wheelbase Saloon

The epitome of Rolls-Royce luxury and elegance, Richard Solove’s 1986 Silver Spur Long Wheelbase Limousine has carried the Solove family on many adventures, including a memorable trip across the Canadian Rockies to the Winter Olympics in Calgary. Its elegance is timeless and it is as exclusive today as when it was built two decades ago.

The complement to the Solove Collection’s 1907 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost from the first year of Ghost production is the Collection’s 1999 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur, one of the final Crewe-designed and -built Rolls-Royces powered by the 6,750cc Rolls-Royce V-8 engine. The Silver Ghost marked the beginning of an important chapter in Rolls-Royce history, and the 1999 Silver Spur marks the end of another.

2002 Rolls-Royce Seraph Park Ward

The Silver Seraph marked the beginning of a new era for Rolls-Royce under BMW ownership. Powered by a 5.4 liter V-12 with a five-speed automatic transmission, the Silver Seraph was complemented by the even more rare Park Ward, incorporating numerous custom features to individual owners’ specifications. The Solove Collection’s Silver Seraph Park Ward’s options include LCD displays built into the backs of the front seat head restraints, a wine cooler, as well as some of the elaborately figured, highly polished wood trim, tables, facings and compartments for which the craftsmen at Rolls-Royce and Park Ward are justly renowned.

1886 Benz Velo Replica

Generally accepted as the first practical series-produced internal combustion engine powered motor vehicle, Karl Benz’s 1886 Velo was singularly important both as the first motor car and as the foundation for the Daimler Benz company. To celebrate the Benz Velo’s centenary, John Bentley Engineering in the U.K. built, with Daimler Benz’s cooperation and technical support, a series of meticulously accurate replicas of the first Benz patent motorwagen, one of which is among the outstanding vehicles in the Solove Collection. It drives exactly as Karl Benz’s first automobile did and is one of only a few in private hands (we have one of the others).

Supernice photo’s! I like those old classic models, but my alltime favorite is the Rolls-Royce Seraph! It’s also superhandy for my kinda of a wineproblem because of the winecooler in the back :). Hope i’ll someday can own one!